Hurricane Harvey:Lessons Learned

Texas Department of Insurance

Communications

Stephanie Goodman

Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs

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Before the storm

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After the storm: Filing your claim

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After the storm: Scams and alerts

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After the storm: Claim questions

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After the storm: Help with recovery

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After the storm: How to get help

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Complaint trends

Melissa Hield

Associate Commissioner Consumer Protection

After the storm: Harvey complaints to TDI

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By the numbers:

• Homeowners claims – 783

• Personal auto claims – 190

• Additional payments to consumers - $4 million

• (as of March 23)

• 670,000 claims were submitted in the first 30-45 days after the storm

Source: Hurricane Harvey Data Call report, January 23, 2018

Harvey, Ike, and Allison complaints

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30 weeks after the storm

Lessons learned

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• Many initial claims were paid quickly

Tip: Include a chronology of the claim with dates and amounts of payments in your response to TDI.

• Consumer issues

• No coverage in place

• Coverage gaps

• Underinsured

• Adjusters

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Agent and adjuster licensing

Elijio Salas

Associate Commissioner Licensing Services

After the storm: Agent and Adjuster Licensing

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• 25% increase in filings in first 5 months of FY2018 compared to previous year. That includes:

• About 54,000 application filings of all types

• 22,000 adjuster / emergency adjuster applications

• 83,000 calls

• Processing days reached just over 60 days by January 2018.

• Today, processing less than 15 days for all intakes.

After the storm: Lessons learned

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• Increase electronic application services. Soon emergency adjuster applications will be available electronically.

• Develop and cross-train Licensing Services staff to help when a catastrophic event hits.

• Continue contingency planning to be able to adjust capacity more quickly in the future.

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Data call

Brian Ryder

Senior Actuary and Team Lead Property & Casualty Data Services

Hurricane Harvey data call: Overview• Issued September 21, 2017.

• All property and casualty insurers, including surplus lines insurers, required to report monthly (later changed to quarterly).

• First submission for data through September 30 was due October 31. Later submissions due 15 days after the end of month (later changed to quarter).

• Insurers required to submit claim and loss data by ZIP code for about 1,070 ZIP codes in 62 counties.

• TDI is using the data to:

o Help monitor the financial impact of Hurricane Harvey on insurers;

o Help monitor the market in terms of insurer claims handling; and

o Provide aggregate data regarding the impact of Hurricane Harvey to policymakers, public officials, and the public.

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Hurricane Harvey data call: Initial results• Data as of first submission.

• Insurers reported about 670,000 total claims for Hurricane Harvey.

• Insurers paid about $4.5 billion in losses, with a gross loss estimate greater than $15 billion.

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Hurricane Harvey data call: Reporting issues

• Companies failing to provide statewide net and gross estimates by line of insurance (Tab A.3, cols. (10) and (11)).

• Companies reporting spaces or text (for example, “NA”) with their ZIP code-level data (Tabs A.1 and A.2).

• Companies overwriting or altering formulas, formatting, or headers in the reporting worksheets.

• Companies adding rows in their ZIP code-level data for duplicate ZIP codes.

• Companies not providing the NAIC company code for each ZIP code in which the company is reporting data.

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Hurricane Harvey data call: Data issues

• Total closed claims exceed total reported claims by a significant amount for a given month.

• Average days to close a claim is greater than the number of days from the date of the storm to the reporting date.

• Number of reported claims decrease significantly from one month’s submission to the next.

• Significant decreases in the number of closed claims with little or no increase in the number of reopened claims.

• Significant increases or decreases in the average number of days to close from one month’s submission to the next.

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